Cusco

Saturday 14 May
Had a lazy start - because we could! - although I was awake early anyway ...

After brekkie, we went off to explore the central part of town. Our official tour is not until this afternoon. In Inca times, the Plaza de Armas was the heart of the city. Colonial arcades surround the plaza, which in ancient times was twice as large. As I said when we arrived last night, it is a big place.

The once Incan capital is now the capital of the Cuzco region in south eastern Peru.

We visited the Church and Convent of La Merced which was astonishing: when you walk in, there is an amazing cloister. Some of the religious works of art were wonderful. La Merced is Cuzco’s third most important colonial church. It was destroyed in the 1650 earthquake, but was quickly rebuilt. To the left of the church, at the back of a small courtyard, is the entrance to the monastery and museum. Paintings based on the life of San Pedro Nolasco, who founded the order of La Merced in Barcelona in 1218, hang on the walls of the beautiful colonial cloister. 

The church on the far side of the cloister contains the tombs of two of the most famous conquistadors: Diego de Almagro and Gonzalo Pizarro (brother of Francisco). Also on the far side of the cloister is a small religious museum that houses vestments rumored to have belonged to conquistador and friar Vicente de Valverde. The museum’s most famous possession is a priceless solid-gold monstrance (a vessel used in the church for relics and the sacrament): 1.2 m high and covered with rubies, emeralds and no fewer than 1500 diamonds and 600 pearls.

Wandering on, we had a guide for the Iglesia San Francisco - which boasts the largest painting in South America!! - it measures 9m by 12m and shows the family tree of St Francis of Assisi, the founder of the order. This church is more austere than many of Cuzco’s other churches. It dates from the 16th and 17th centuries and is one of the few that didn’t need to be completely reconstructed after the 1650 earthquake. It has a large collection of colonial religious paintings and a beautifully carved cedar choir. Also of macabre interest are the two crypts, which are not totally underground. Inside are human bones, some of which have been carefully arranged in designs meant to remind visitors of the transitory nature of life.

Next was the Museo Histórico Regional - quite a good exhibition and pulling things together for us re Pre-Incan and Incan times. This eclectic museum is housed in the colonial Casa Garcilaso de la Vega, the house of the Inca-Spanish chronicler who now lies buried in the cathedral. The chronologically arranged collection begins with arrowheads from the pre-Ceramic period and continues with ceramics and jewelry of the Wari, Pukara and Inca cultures.

Off then to the casa de cambio for more Peruvian Soles and back to the hotel for a break before setting off on our city tour.

We start at the obvious place: the Plaza de Armas. On the plaza’s northeastern side is the imposing Cathedral, fronted by a large flight of stairs and flanked by the churches of Jesús María and El Triunfo. On the southeastern side is the strikingly ornate church of La Compañía de Jesús where there is a wedding taking place. Our guide Ernesto has excellent English and is very informative.

The Cathedral is simply amazing: a real 'blow-you-away' sort of place. The Spanish had it built on top of an existing Inca temple using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán. Its construction started in 1559 and took almost a century. It is joined by Iglesia del Triunfo (1536) to its right and Iglesia de Jesús María (1733) to the left so it is 3 churches side-by-side. [More notes below]

We continue our tour, walking along the quiet pedestrian alleyway of Loreto, which has Inca walls; it is a historic means of access to the plaza.

Next stop was the Inca ruins in Qorikancha which form the base of the colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. Qorikancha was once the richest temple in the Inca empire; all that remains today is the masterful stonework. In Inca times, Qorikancha (Quechua for ‘Golden Courtyard’) was literally covered with gold. The temple walls were lined with some 700 solid-gold sheets, each weighing about 2kg. There were life-sized gold and silver replicas of corn, which were ceremonially ‘planted’ in agricultural rituals. Also reported were solid-gold treasures such as altars, llamas and babies, as well as a replica of the sun which was lost. But within months of the arrival of the first conquistadors, this incredible wealth had all been looted and melted down. [More notes below] 

A mini-van then took us (we were in a group of about 12 people) to Sacsaywamán up high over Cusco. This site is an ancient military fortress that includes stunning examples of Inca skill and even a natural stone slide. It is an impressive complex of sleek stone structures. Great views over Cusco from here and the dipping sun made for lovely light. [More notes below]

It is by now late afternoon. The mini-van takes us to Tambomachay, with its two distinctive aqueducts that to this day continue to provide clean water to the area. Then with the light fading fast, we go to Puca Pucara, a strategically located 'red fortress' that dominates the entire area.

A big day. We could have done with 2 days in Cusco. We come back here after our visit to Machu Picchu but only to spend the night.

We had a quick pisco sour at Paddy's Irish Bar (which claims to be the highest 100% Irish-owned pub on the planet ...) 'overlooking' (if you crane your neck!) the Plaza de Armas and arrived back at our hotel for our briefing at 7 p.m.

[More notes on the Cathedral:
El Triunfo, Cuzco’s oldest church, houses a vault containing the remains of the famous Inca chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, who was born in Cuzco in 1539 and died in Córdoba, Spain, in 1616. His remains were returned in 1978 by King Juan Carlos of Spain. We learned about him earlier today at the Museo Histórico Regional.

The Cathedral is one of the city’s greatest repositories of colonial art, especially for works from the escuela cuzqueña (Cuzco school), noted for its decorative combination of 17th-century European devotional painting styles with the color palette and iconography of indigenous Andean artists. A classic example is the frequent portrayal of the Virgin Mary wearing a mountain-shaped skirt with a river running around its hem, identifying her with Pachamama (Mother Earth).

One of the most famous paintings of the escuela cuzqueña is 'The Last Supper' by Quechua artist Marcos Zapata. Found in the northeast corner of the Cathedral, it depicts one of the most solemn occasions in the Christian faith, but graces it with a small feast of Andean ceremonial food; there is a plump and juicy-looking roast cuy (guinea pig) stealing the show with its feet held plaintively in the air.

The Cathedral houses also the oldest surviving painting in Cuzco, showing the entire city during the great earthquake of 1650. The inhabitants can be seen parading around the plaza with a crucifix, praying for the earthquake to stop, which it miraculously did. This precious crucifix, called El Señor de los Temblores (The Lord of the Earthquakes), can still be seen in the alcove to the right of the door leading into El Triunfo. Every year on Holy Monday, the Señor is taken out on parade and devotees throw ñucchu flowers at him – these resemble droplets of blood and represent the wounds of crucifixion. The flowers leave a sticky residue that collects smoke from votive candles lit beneath the statue: this is why he’s now black. Legend has it that under his skirt, he’s lily white.

The sacristy of the cathedral is covered with paintings of Cuzco’s bishops, starting with Vicente de Valverde, the friar who accompanied Pizarro during the conquest. The crucifixion at the back of the sacristy is attributed to the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, though some guides claim it to be the work of the 17th-century Spaniard Alonso Cano. The original wooden altar is at the very back of the cathedral, behind the present silver altar, and opposite both is the magnificently carved choir, dating from the 17th century. There are also many glitzy silver and gold side chapels with elaborate platforms and altars that contrast with the austerity of the cathedral’s stonework.

The huge main doors of the Cathedral are open to genuine worshippers between 6am and 10am. Religious festivals are a superb time to see the cathedral. During the feast of Corpus Christi, for example, it is filled with pedestals supporting larger-than-life statues of saints, surrounded by thousands of candles and bands of musicians honoring them with mournful Andean tunes.]

[More notes on Qorikancha:
Various other religious rites took place in the temple. It is said that the mummified bodies of several previous incas (kings) were kept here, brought out into the sunlight each day and offered food and drink, which was then ritually burnt. Qorikancha was also an observatory where high priests monitored celestial activities. Most of this is left to the imagination of the modern visitor, but the remaining stonework ranks with the finest Inca architecture in Peru. A curved, perfectly-fitted 6m high wall can be seen from both inside and outside the site. This wall has withstood all of the violent earthquakes that leveled most of Cuzco’s colonial buildings.

Once inside the site, the visitor enters a courtyard. The octagonal font in the middle was originally covered with 55kg of solid gold. Inca chambers lie to either side of the courtyard. The largest, to the right, were said to be temples to the moon and the stars, and were covered with sheets of solid silver. The walls are perfectly tapered upward and, with their niches and doorways, are excellent examples of Inca trapezoidal architecture. The fitting of the individual blocks is so precise that in some places you can’t tell where one block ends and the next begins.

Opposite these chambers, on the other side of the courtyard, are smaller temples dedicated to thunder and the rainbow. Three holes have been carved through the walls of this section to the street outside, which scholars think were drains, either for sacrificial chicha (fermented corn beer), blood or, more mundanely, rainwater. Alternatively, they may have been speaking tubes connecting the inner temple with the outside. Another feature of this side of the complex is the floor in front of the chambers: it dates from Inca times and is carefully cobbled with pebbles.

The temple was built in the mid-15th century during the reign of the 10th Inca , Túpac Yupanqui. After the conquest, Francisco Pizarro gave it to his brother Juan, but he was not able to enjoy it for long – Juan died in the battle at Sacsaywamán in 1536. In his will, he bequeathed Qorikancha to the Dominicans, in whose possession it has remained ever since. Today’s site is a bizarre combination of Inca and colonial architecture, topped with a roof of glass and metal.

Colonial paintings around the outside of the courtyard depict the life of St Dominic, which contain several representations of dogs holding torches in their jaws. These are God’s guard dogs (dominicanus in Latin), hence the name of this religious order.]

[More notes on Sacsaywamán:
This immense ruin of both religious and military significance is 2km from Cuzco.

The long Quechua name means ‘Satisfied Falcon,’ though tourists will inevitably remember it by the mnemonic ‘sexy woman.’ Sacsaywamán feels huge, but only about 20% of the original structure remains. Soon after the conquest, the Spaniards tore down many walls and used the blocks to build their own houses, leaving the largest and most impressive rocks, especially the main battlements.

In 1536 the fort was the site of one of the most bitter battles of the Spanish conquest. More than two years after Pizarro’s entry into Cuzco, the rebellious Manco Inca recaptured the lightly guarded Sacsaywamán and used it as a base to lay siege to the conquistadors in Cuzco. Manco was on the brink of defeating the Spaniards when a desperate last-ditch attack by 50 Spanish cavalry led by Juan Pizarro, Francisco’s brother, succeeded in retaking Sacsaywamán and putting an end to the rebellion. Manco Inca survived and retreated to the fortress of Ollantaytambo, but most of his forces were killed. Thousands of dead littered the site after the Incas’ defeat, attracting swarms of carrion-eating Andean condors. The tragedy was memorialized by the inclusion of eight condors in Cuzco’s coat of arms.

The site is composed of three different areas, the most striking being the magnificent three-tiered zigzag fortifications. One stone, incredibly, weighs more than 300 tons. It was the ninth inca, Pachacutec, who envisioned Cuzco in the shape of a puma, with Sacsaywamán as the head, and these 22 zigzagged walls as the teeth of the puma. The walls also formed an extremely effective defensive mechanism that forced attackers to expose their flanks.

Opposite is the hill called Rodadero, with retaining walls, polished rocks and a finely carved series of stone benches known as the Inca’s Throne. Three towers once stood above these walls. Only the foundations remain, but the 22m diameter of the largest, Muyuc Marca, gives an indication of how big they must have been. With its perfectly fitted stone conduits, this tower was probably used as a huge water tank for the garrison. Other buildings within the ramparts provided food and shelter for an estimated 5000 warriors. 

Most of these structures were torn down by the Spaniards and later inhabitants of Cuzco. Between the zigzag ramparts and the hill lies a large, flat parade ground that is used for the colorful tourist spectacle of Inti Raymi, held every June 24.]